{crafty} OBW Cashmere Dame

Did you know Wednesday's are One  Buck Wednesday over at JessicaSprague.com? Today you can snag Glitz Design Cashmere paper pack for $1 and the Elements 1 pack is half off!

When we were assigned to create something with this collection I was a little nervous. I don't do well with themed kits and looking at the collection it is overall very feminine and frilly. Me and flowers don't typically get along! The first thing I noticed in this kit however was the "today will be awesome" die cut and I thought it would be perfect for Little Man's first day of school. I also knew I wanted to use several of the speech bubbles as a main repeating element on my page. I love the retro almost superhero comic look I ended up with using the starburst, which I removed the rhinestones form, and bubbles.

Be sure to check out the Glitz blog today for more inspiration using this kit!

I also completely neglected to post last week's layout for OBW! This was my page using Yours Truly, which was another fun kit to work with! I love a good woodgrain background and this whitewashed paper is one of my faves!

Thanks for looking!

{crafty} Exciting News of the Digital Variety

Glitz Design is one of my current fave manufacturers. I mean, have you seen the new Finnley collection!? It is down right cute and my number one must have right now!

So you can imagine my excitement when I was asked to be on their brand new digital design team! I believe I was grinning from ear to ear all day when I found out. Digital scrapbooking is a fairly new love of mine and I cannot wait to dive in to it head on with these amazing collections to work with!

Head on over to the Glitz blog to meet more of the talented Glitz Design Digital team and be sure to check back there tomorrow for the rest of the introductions!

{crafty} Toolbox digital layouts

I signed up for Studio Calico's Toolbox class this month, and I am so glad I did! The first week we went digital with Shanna Noel; using digital elements ranging from papers to brushes to templates for both digital and hybrid pages. I have dabbled a bit in hybrid pages before but I have learned some great new techniques and how to use product in new and different ways.

My first page is a simple digital layout using a chevron template, made by Catherine Davis, that was provided in the class.

My second layout is a hybrid page using several different brushes available from the class and previous Studio Calico releases. I stamped all the circles in black and then went back and randomly clipped color and digital papers. Once those were completed I stamped several other brushes in white over the top of a few of the circles and added the brush strokes and title. I printed my base page out twice so I could cut out a few circles and pop them up on the page for dimension and then added other embellishments, mainly keeping with the circle theme. 

My last page is another all digital page, although I am tempted to add some bits and pieces once I have it printed. I created a template of multiple sizes and layers of triangles and then went back and added my papers and photo using clipping masks just as I did with the last two layouts. I chose a few patterned papers for this layout but did not care for the color. With a quick fill layer of color I was able to customize my digital paper to suit my layout. There are several ways to adjust color for this but my preferred method when I want a tone on tone pattern is to create a new layer, use the bucket tool to fill it with your choice of color and then change the blending mode from Normal to Color. It's that easy! 

Next week in the class starts the mixed media portion with Celine Navarro and I could not be more excited! I hope I have as much time to play as I did with the digital portion this week. 

Thanks for looking!

{crafty} layout share & some news!

Well I sure am a bit late to the party here, but I do have some exciting news to share! I have been asked to join the Craft Warehouse DT! I am such a fan of the Craft Warehouse stores and couldn't be more excited to join them for my first official design team spot! If you haven't had the chance to visit one of these stores in the Pacific Northwest, you sure are missing out. They always carry the latest products and are packed full of inspiration at every aisle. It is definitely one of my favorite places to shop.

Keeping up with all news fun and good I can now share my FIRST and SECOND ever published layouts!

The first was briefly shared and featured at Studio Calico until I received the publication notice and had to have it removed. It was published in the July issue of Scrapbook Trends, which sadly was the first digital only publication for Northridge. I would have loved to get my hands on a print issue of this!

This one is in the current August issue of ST. I have shared it on my blog, again briefly, before I had to remove it. I created the word art in Silhouette Studio and printed it on white woodgrain cardstock, then stitched it to the printed paper to create the base for my page.

The last layout I have to share is my most recent page. I created this during the Studio Calico Inked class using several techniques that were demonstrated. For the background stamping I chose a smaller background stamp and colored it in with three different Tim Holtz Distress Markers, spritzed it with water and then stamped making sure to mask off the areas of the paper I did not want to ink. After I finished stamping I sewed along the edges of the chevron pattern to give it a more finished look.

Thanks for looking!

{crafty} Work Space

The last month has been a complete whirlwind of activity and to-do's to mark off my list. On top of shop orders, gifts to make, creating a 30 minute slideshow for little man's Pre-K graduation and other school activities I also decided it was a great time to PURGE. And that task was not isolated to my craft room, but rather the whole house. And while I was at it, why not do a little painting as well? My house has been a semi-disaster the last few weeks while all this was going on and now everything is finally pulling together and becoming less chaotic. Thankfully just in time, as my inlaws are on their way up from California to visit for two weeks and will be here tomorrow afternoon!

The master bedroom and bathroom are getting little makeovers, going from builder beige to Granite Grey. I LOVE the color we picked out and cannot wait to do a little decorating once I am completely finished painting. I may just have to post some before and after shots. 

The last few days I have been focusing on organizing my craft space. One thing I have learned about myself in the last few years is that if I cannot SEE my supplies I will most definitely forget about them and they will go unused. Aside from my paper all of my supplies are now completely visible on a shelf or in clear containers. I may even go wild and label them ;-)

Next time I take pictures I will do my best not to do it in the evening! These colors are not very accurate.

Several of my organizational pieces have been here since we first built my desk space when we moved in. Primarily the mason jars, magazine racks and hanging cups. I have been moving around the plastic buckets to be more practical and created tiered shelves for my paints and mists from spare pieces of wood in the garage. 

My tower of shelves holds my recent Studio Calico kits and current projects. On top is a tiered file organizer to hold the most recent kit. 

Now that all this organizing is done and life is slowing down just a bit, I am hoping to actually create something in my space! I have a few incomplete layouts that are in need of being finished, a brand new Dylusions art journal begging for paint and ink, and the gorgeous Studio Calico Atlantic collection to inspire something lovely!